Defense has more musicians than State has diplomats

JOE RAEDLE/Getty Images

David J. Kilcullen, a senior advisor to Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq, makes the following observation in a big-think paper that's making the rounds:

At present, the U.S. defense budget accounts for approximately half of total global defense spending, while the U.S. armed forces employ about 1.68 million uniformed members. By comparison, the State Department employs about 6,000 foreign service officers, while the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has about 2,000. In other words, the Department of Defense is about 210 times larger than USAID and State combined—there are substantially more people employed as musicians in Defense bands than in the entire foreign service. [my emphasis]

I hope they like John Philip Sousa in foreign capitals.